1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of gaming, especially electronic gaming in which small wagers on tickets are used in a single round of play in a high volatility electronic gaming system.
2. Background of the Art
Games of chance have been enjoyed by people for thousands of years and have enjoyed increased and widespread popularity in recent times. As with most forms of entertainment, players enjoy playing a wide variety of games and new games. Playing new games adds to the excitement of “gaming.” As is well known in the art and as used herein, the term “gaming” and “gaming devices” are used to indicate that some form of wagering is involved, and that players must make wagers of value, whether actual currency or some equivalent of value, e.g., token or credit.
One popular game of chance is the slot machine. Conventionally, a slot machine is configured for a player to wager something of value, e.g., currency, house token, established credit or other representation of currency or credit. After the wager has been made, the player activates the slot machine to cause a random event to occur. The player wagers that particular random events will occur that will return value to the player. A standard device causes a plurality of reels to spin and ultimately stop, displaying a random combination of some form of indicia, for example, numbers or symbols. If this display contains one of a preselected plurality of winning combinations, the machine releases money into a payout chute or increments a credit meter by the amount won by the player. For example, if a player initially wagered two coins of a specific denomination and that player achieved a payout, that player may receive the same number or multiples of the wager amount in coins of the same denomination as wagered.
There are many different formats for generating the random display of events that can occur to determine payouts in wagering devices. The standard or original format was the use of three reels with symbols distributed over the face of the wheel. When the three reels were spun, they would eventually each stop in turn, displaying a combination of three symbols (e.g., with three wheels and the use of a single payout line as a row in the middle of the area where the symbols are displayed. By appropriately distributing and varying the symbols on each of the reels, the random occurrence of predetermined winning combinations can be provided in mathematically predetermined probabilities. By clearly providing for specific probabilities for each of the preselected winning outcomes, precise odds that would control the amount of the payout for any particular combination and the percentage return on wagers for the house could be readily controlled.
Other formats of gaming apparatus that have developed in a progression from the pure slot machine with three reels have dramatically increased with the development of video gaming apparatus. Rather than have only mechanical elements such as wheels or reels that turn and stop to randomly display symbols, video gaming apparatus and the rapidly increasing sophistication in hardware and software have enabled an explosion of new and exciting gaming apparatus. The earlier video apparatus merely imitated or simulated the mechanical slot games in the belief that players would want to play only the same games. Early video games therefore were simulated slot machines. The use of video gaming apparatus to play new games such as draw poker and Keno broke the ground for the realization that there were many untapped formats for gaming apparatus. Now casinos may have hundreds of different types of gaming apparatus with an equal number of significant differences in play. The apparatus may vary from traditional three reel slot machines with a single payout line, video simulations of three reel video slot machines, to five reel, five column simulated slot machines with a choice of twenty or more distinct paylines, including randomly placed lines, scatter pays, or single image payouts. In addition to the variation in formats for the play of games, bonus plays, bonus awards, and progressive jackpots have been introduced with great success.
The volatility of a game is based upon a comparison of the frequency of winning events as compared to the size of odds or payouts on the winning events. A low volatility game is one in which there are frequent, lows odds payouts or winning events (with the house still having a retention of 1-8% on the game). For example, video blackjack is a low volatility game, where most winning outcomes are paid at 1:1 (blackjack being an exception at 3:2) and the house still has a 1-3% advantage, depending upon the skill of the player. A high volatility game would have infrequent winning outcomes, but the odds paid on winning events would be relatively high. Some side bets, progressive jackpot bets and the like fall into this category.
Casinos are looking for ways to make games more exciting and to find additional sources of revenue. The amount of money wagered is not necessarily as critical to the casinos as compared to the amount of money on individual wagers collectively retained by the casinos. The proliferation of penny video game machines, with large numbers of paylines and up to 20 units wagered per payline has spurred a significant growth in revenues for casinos.
One avenue in sources of income/revenue for casinos that has not yet been explored is marginal or small ticket values used for unique gaming modalities. The present invention enables and discloses novel game play tied to small value wagering based on tickets provided from various sources.